Monday, October 31, 2005
History courses emphasize service learning
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Through two new courses in spring 2006, Introduction to Historical Administration and Archives and Oral History, USI history students will have an opportunity to work in the community, contribute to the preservation of local history, and develop practical skills as working historians and archivists. “The History Department is committed to giving our students practical experience in the various types of positions they might have after graduation,” said Dr. Tamara Hunt, chair of the Department of History. “Most of them are not going to get a Ph.D. in history, and they need practical applications and ideas about what possibilities are available to them. These courses will give them that practical knowledge.” Students in Introduction to Historical Administration, taught by Dan Goodman, collections manager for Historic New Harmony, will learn about collection development, exhibit design, grant writing, and other practical applications of what historians do in the public sphere. “It will give students an inside view of what goes into running a museum or historic site,” Hunt said. In Hunt’s class, Archives and Oral History, students will work on several different projects, including an oral history of New Harmony, Indiana, and archival work at Willard Library and Deaconess Hospital. The oral history project began in spring 2005 in Hunt’s Historical Methods class. “That convinced me that we needed an entire semester-length course that specifically emphasized these skills, to give students more scope for the type of work we were doing in that course,” she said. The purpose of the project is to understand what it means to live in a modern living community that is at the same time a national historic site with a significant past. Students identify and record interviews with subjects, and create transcripts from the interviews for the archives at USI, Historic New Harmony, and the Workingmen’s Institute in New Harmony. At Willard Library, students will work with and identify records that have not been archived, and work with the photographic archive, researching photographs and writing captions. Using documents and photographs, they will design displays within the library. The layman might find the Deaconess Hospital archival project unusual. “It doesn’t occur to people that a hospital would have an archive, but most businesses of any size are going to have records that are in fact their archive,” Hunt said. Students will design displays that reflect the history of the hospital and work on an oral history project on its nursing school. “The nursing school moved to USI, so there is actually a natural connection there,” Hunt said. “Our students will help locate and interview people who went through the nursing school.” Hunt believes the project will be of great value both to students and to the community. “We hope to give students skills they will need for jobs at historic sites, archives and beyond,” she said. “A lot of these skills, such as attention to detail and the ability to summarize material accurately, are skills other jobs require. “This is a terrific opportunity for students. Looking at the records, I was fascinated by the wealth of opportunity and information about the history of Evansville. Evansville has a very impressive history, and these are some fascinating materials. “Many people aren’t aware of what historians can offer to a community. I hope through these courses the community will have a better idea of how historians can help the community as a whole understand its past.” |
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